Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi, my question is what is the ratio of baking soda to vinegar that will make the rocket go the highest? Any information would be helpful. My research questions are a) mathematical formulas and questions and b) history of similar experiments.
Thank you!

readalotman-

Were you aware that we have a project that asks that very question? https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p086.shtml . You might want to give that procedure a try and determine that yourself. Ideally you're looking for enough reactant so that the chemistry is completely used with none of either side left over. That way you won't be asking the rocket to carry any unnecessary weight. It also depends on the strength of the vinegar. You'll get more reaction for a given mass of double strength vinegar than the regular 5% kind. So the answer is: it depends.

In your research you probably found quite a few discussions of the chemistry itself. https://answers.yahoo.com/question/inde ... 311AAD4F2Z is a pretty good summary of the problem and an answer. I found a bunch more in a search engine as well. Give the searching another try and see what you find. Or better yet, try the experiment.

Howard